One year of fighting in Sudan prompted cries at the UN headquarters on Monday for an end to violence, which has a devastating impact on civilians, particularly women and girls.
“Sudan’s current conflict, which marks its one-year point this week, is having a devastating impact on the people of Sudan, particularly women and girls,” UN Women said in a statement. “UN Women calls on the international community to ensure that the conflict in Sudan does not become a neglected crisis.”
The statement also said the fighting reversed gains made toward democracy and stability, leaving the country in suffering and insecurity while facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
In a separate statement, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Nderitu said the fighting has taken the lives of more than 14,000 people and injured thousands more, leaving millions of civilians, including children, exposed to violence.
“Women and girls are exposed to rampant rape and other forms of sexual violence,” she said. “One year on, we are no closer to peace than when the crisis started. This is devastating. This is unacceptable.”
Nderitu decried the repeated exploitation of ethnic and racial identity as a basis for vicious attacks, particularly by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias against the Masalit and other non-Arab communities in the Darfur region which was already marked by decades of violence.
